Book reviews washed down with a cup of tea and at least three biscuits

Day 22 – Favourite non-sexual relationship

Men are simpler than you imagine my sweet child. But what goes on in the twisted, tortuous minds of women would baffle anyone.-Daphne Du Maurier Rebecca

There are so many I could talk about and that I thought about, but I think a really interesting relationship is the unexplicit relationship between the new Mrs. De Winter and Rebecca in Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.

I think it’s relatively easy for authors to create a situation in which there is overt passion or animosity between characters, and many do this crudely with little skill or originality (see Twilight) but the genius of Daphne Du Maurier is that she creates a complex relationship between two characters who have never met.

I don’t think it’s a solely female trait, but it is a common problem in relationships I’ve seen that people compare themselves to their partner’s ex and we can sympathise with the unnamed narrator when a beautiful and mysterious woman like Rebecca is the perceived love rival. Even though she doesn’t exist as a living, breathing character in the novel; Rebecca makes the narrator feel and become a non-entity, Rebecca is the eponymous one and Mrs. De Winter is of interest as a result of her role as second wife and her struggle to find her place in Rebecca’s home.